The Rental Car and the Black Sea...

Day Three - Five: To avoid some of the hassles that come along with the public transport in this country, we decided to rent a car for a few days. There was a good, cheap place in Stara where we picked up the car. As anyone who has ever driven in a foreign country knows, it can be really stressful driving on the roads not entirely knowing where you are going. This was the case with my friends. I sat in shotgun playing navigator to Ginger as she headed out of Stara and onto the highway.

(Our red Clio Renault car...)

After a few minutes we felt confident we were headed in the right direction just excited for the sunny sands of the black sea. But that excitement soon died as we were pulled over about 10 minutes into the trip. The cop held out his wand that says stop and we pulled into the shoulder. He approached the car soon to discover it was full of foreigners. He asked if anyone spoke Bulgarian and that was my cue to get out and handle the situation. I walked over to his car where his cop buddy was standing ready to show me the speed gun stating that we were going 79 in a 50 km zone. I apologized and explained the situation. After a few minutes of chatting, he let us go. No ticket and no bribe. I felt very proud of myself for taking charge and getting us out of that sticky situation. With fear in our bones, we took the rest of the ride slow and steady.

(View from Jack and Ronda's place as the sun was setting on our first night there.)

Finally we arrived in Burgas where we were met by Jack and Ronda, two happily married Peace Corps Volunteers with some amazing stories. We stayed in their wonderful apartment for the weekend as we ventured to the beautiful seaside.

(The beach of Sozopol.)

June is still considered the early season so the beaches were not crowded yet at all. The weather was great and the water warm for out lazy 2 days of beach bumming. You know that saying, "when in Rome do as the Romans." My friends and I did just that...well, sort of. The beaches here are known for the topless girls. No, we didn't sunbathe topless. Instead, we swam far out, took our tops off, and swung them around our heads. That is about as daring as we got. But hey, now we can say we went topless on the Black Sea. That's a story for the grandkids!